Captaining, A voyage to Freedom

Legends of the Brethren Court. This is the final novel written by Crispin, who died in September Twenty-five-year-old Jack Sparrow is a clean-cut merchant seaman pursuing a legitimate career as a first mate for the East India Trading Company. After making port in Africa , Jack is summoned by Cutler Beckett , who makes him captain of a ship called the Wicked Wench. Beckett gives Jack an assignment. He has heard a legend about a magical island named Zerzura whose labyrinthine bowels are said to contain a glorious treasure.

Beckett suspects that one of his house slaves, a girl named Ayisha, is from Zerzura. In payment for his services, Beckett promises Jack a share of the treasure. It proves that Forster is not indifferent to his weaknesses, some of which can also be recognized in his work. Moreover, these flaws justifying the impossibility to depict facts in a totally objective way and not to be under the impact of cultural values Hall, , This situation is based on a perspective which affirms that varieties in terms of scientific methods, the minds and the emotions of people, lead to the differences about their feelings, observations and their statements.

It can be stated that Forster supports a progressive, humanist, global, totally eurocentric perspective by paying attention to morality and religion under the influence of his father. But, what is foregrounded in his work is the portrayal of people, their living conditions, their relationship with their environment, and particularly their cultural notions.

In that period, travel literature became one of the most basic genres of literature and this aspect enabled this genre to emerge as the most important means of communication among cultures. Therefore, works like A Voyage Round the World can be regarded as documents that portray, in global terms, the interaction between different cultures and that demonstrate the transfer of cultural values Frank, , 9.

Thus, in the work, together with the environmental aspects of the geographies discovered, the cultural notions of the inhabitants have been compared and contrasted with the western culture, and the philosophical content of this work made people read it not only in the era it was written but also in the following centuries. The author deals with such concepts as culture and civilization with a new approach with his criticism about the eurocentric viewpoint.

The work can be read as a product of humanist philosophy, which does not regard a culture as superior to the other, from the most developed to the least primitive. This region, so far away from Europe, made Forster critically compare and contrast the cultural habits he recognized there with those belonging to Europe.

These comparisons and contrasts were based on the social structure, power relations, religion, traditions, language and cultural aspects. In all of these communities, some significant characteristics such as inequality, greed, the desire to dominate, and to impose pressure can be observed in some respects. Forster explains this fact by indicating that human beings establish similar life styles everywhere, but the cultural values that come into view as a result of social structures vary.

As can be seen in the quotation below, the cultural differences are based on different factors. For instance, Forster, realizing the skills of the Tahitian people in a different kind of music, which does not consist of any melodies, expresses his feeling in this manner:.

It is surprising that the taste for music should be so general all over the world, when the ideas of harmony among different nations are so distinct! Forster, , Although he utters these expressions, he does not regard his own culture as superior in terms of the progress people have experienced.

Captain Cook's Journal During His First Voyage Round the World/Chapter 3

He claims that every culture is equal to the other, since culture is a product of habits which come to the fore as a consequence of education and particularly many environmental factors. He thinks that the status of human beings in the universe totally depends on the local factors in their environments.

Climate, the geographical position of the region, the height of the mountains, the way the rivers float, the features of the soil, the species and variety of plants and animals, somehow restrict people or make them free in terms of some aspects, so all of these elements have a considerable impact upon individuals from the shape of their bodies to their moral values Forster, , Thus, culture, which has become a habit in time, is a process of education directly related to regional circumstances.

In his work, Forster exemplifies the effect of the aspects, restricted to a specific region, on the physical state and moral notions of people. Moreover, Forster highlights another similar situation about the impact of local conditions upon people; for example the violent warriors in New Zealand, and peaceful and mild public of Tahiti have different attitudes and behaviours in spite of the same origin they come from.

Similarly, while the foreigners coming to Tahiti are warmly and friendly greeted, citizens from Europe are faced with timidity and envy on the islands of New Zealand with so many rocks even if these surroundings are not so far away from Tahiti, and according to Forster, this discrepancy is:. Forster asserts that the fertile lands in Tahiti and its warm climate enable the growth of nutritious products so that Tahitian people are healthy, happy and harmoniously living together without any worry about the future. They are all well-proportioned, and some would have been selected by Phidias or Praxiteles, as models of masculine beauty.

Their features are sweet, and unruffled by violent passions. Their large eyes, their arched eyebrows, and high forehead, give a noble air to their heads, which are adorned by strong beards, and a comely growth of hair. These, as well as their beautiful teeth, are the proofs of vigour, and of a sound habit of body.

Captain Cook's Voyage Around the World - The First Steps of Globalization and the First Problems

In this angle, Forster assumes that considering the New Zealanders who have many enemies and who do not have productive lands, it can be asserted that due to the insufficiencies in the environment inhabitants have an inclination to cannibalism, since as a consequence of starvation and poverty, human beings may adopt different actions and approaches. In New Zealand, since life is based on killing the enemy and eating the flesh of the dead person because of rage, the natives have realized that they can be healthy if they taste the flesh of the corpses, thus Forster asserts that those killing their enemies have begun to eat the dead bodies, so it has turned out to be a habit.

He states that due to the way how they were brought up, the seamen who cannot even imagine the idea of eating the flesh of an individual, can employ so much barbarity, which can be regarded as worse than cannibalism. Although Forster does not criticize the practices of colonialism inflicted by people from Holland in Africa, dwelling on his discourse, he can even be seen as among the anti-colonialists of his period. His tendency to learn the language of native people he has come across in his voyages, to compare and contrast their language with the other ones, to employ the original names of these places instead of the phrases used by the European sailors, and to support the inhabitants who are peacefully leading their lives despite their isolation from the outside world, all of these, prove that he is an anti-colonialist.

Forster, going one step further, affirms that the relationship between the European with the natives on the islands of the South Sea should be hindered:. Forster also begins to question that how the Europeans cannot achieve eliminating their inclination to destruction, violence, and cruelty in spite of their knowledge and their ability to analyze and evaluate, in other words, he employs a social criticism. Furthermore, Forster observing the foreign cultures, recognizes the irrational situations belonging to his own culture.

While the meat of the dirtiest animal, according to many cultures, is without any hesitation eaten, people disgust dog meat, and Forster explains this situation by referring to the impact of education upon the acquisition of habits. Forster states that the same tendency can be recognized within the consumption habits of animals and indicates that the dogs in New Zealand consume their own species as the inhabitants have the same custom.

In other words, not only the people but also the animals are cannibals there. Similarly, Forster also declares that the dogs on the islands of the South Sea are regarded as the silliest animal, whereas in Europe they are considered to be animals with special capabilities, and he explains this contradiction in this way: For example, he finds it difficult to accept the nakedness of Tahitian women and their freedom in terms of their sexual understanding.

The Tahitian females belonging to all social classes, in exchange for some bed covers or clothes, do not resist fulfilling the sexual desires of sailors.

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When the inhabitants have realized that by this way they can attain the useful tools and materials of the Europeans, they begin to sell their wives and daughters to the sailors for sexual slavery when they want to get rid of them. It is a usual tradition, because a single girl before marriage can have more than one boyfriend.

Thus those who are not subjected to this corrupted system are merely the married women who are expected to be loyal to their husbands. According to Forster, the degenerated way of life, in other words, the spread of prostitution is the negative outcome of the interaction between the two cultures, so he questions whether it is the natives or the Europeans who cause the problem.

Captain Cook in Hawaii - The National Archives

In this respect, Forster gives more striking examples so as to prove that he lost his belief about the possibility to see people having created a heaven-like environment. The scene in which a fat man and his two servants prepare the table for Forster causes him to lose his hopes about a society equality and justice have been somehow established:.

Our disappointment was therefore very great, when we saw a luxurious individual spending his life in the most sluggish inactivity, and without one benefit to society, like the privileged parasites of more civilized climates, fatteningon the superfluous produce of the soil, of which he robbed the labouring multitude. Towards the end of the voyage, after seeing Tierra del Fuego, on the south of the Strait of Magellan, where people who are not civilized and developed enough to protect themselves from cold and to provide themselves with sufficient food, Forster totally changes his mind related to the state of happiness and concludes that the European citizens are more pleased with their life than these people who constituted their own primitive way of life Forster, , But, this remark is valid not only for these natives but also for Tahitian people who have polytheistic belief system despite their heaven-like life with their highly developed living style and traditions.

According to Forster, the noticeable shortcoming of these human beings is that they do not adopt a religious belief system based on only one exalted God, in other words they do not have monotheistic religion.

All of these observations made Forster regard religion as the primary notion of morality, as a consequence of which the relationship of individual with religion is defined by Forster as essential to attain moral values. One can recognize that Forster also puts the 18 th century philosophy into practice in his reflections, but his statements that disillusioned people are associated with his devotion to his own faith.

Therefore, it can be claimed that Forster supports both knowledge and religion for the progress, prosperity and the future of a society, however he could not see the combination of these notions on the islands he visited. Particularly, his emphasis on the importance of knowledge can be recognized throughout his work. He thinks that the focus on knowledge makes it easier to learn about nature and to adapt to the conditions in nature, so the tools in the hands of the European, which are depicted as a part of civilization, knowledge and development by Forster, and the reaction of the people on these islands to these materials, according to Forster, play a very important role in portraying the culture of these people.

For example, Forster claims that a man from New Zealand, who realizes the importance of shovels and big nails, learns to use them, so he is an intelligent person, whereas people leading their lives in a dehumanized way, lack intelligence:. Furthermore, Forster, so as to broaden the minds of these people, believes that they must have interaction with the English culture, so he demonstrates his views about the transportation of a native, in Tahiti, named O-Mai, to England.

Forster thinks that his lack of concentration is related to his child-like evaluation capability. In European culture, the distinctive features of the natives may not be so apparent, but all of the traditions and the principles of Europe have not been established by the Europeans themselves, so it cannot be denied that its culture is the combination of other cultures Forster, , Forster indicates that the knowledge that came to the fore as a consequence of the Enlightenment of Europe has been gathered from different parts of the world, so the progress experienced by Europe as a result of their focus on knowledge should be shared with the natives, who need to acquire a new perspective to life through knowledge.

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So the voyage of Forster enables him to realize that there are so many people who require knowledge to survive, consequently one must help these people so as to fulfil the necessities of humanism. However, Forster stresses that those who would support these people must not impose the understanding of colonialism on these inhabitants, so the aid that would be brought to the natives should be based on just helping individuals gain the positive outcomes of leading a civilized and a moral life and contributing to the establishment of a more prosperous and peaceful living condition.

Forster, at the end of the voyage, realized that a civilized, developed and educated society is better than a community destined to a primitive life: Considering these voyages of discovery to be the first steps of globalization, one can point out that the problems about this process were scientifically analyzed by Forster. The most serious of these problems was the wide gap among different citizens of the world in terms of their economic condition, which has not been solved yet in our contemporary age. The solution Forster offered to this problem can be summarized in this manner: Those who were responsible for creating and broadening this wide gap due to their superiority in terms of knowledge and skills, as a result of the necessities of humanism and civilization, should support the ones who needed urgent help, but Forster was not sure whether or not such a support was essential for the public on the islands of the South Sea, who were leading a peaceful life, because he thought that such extensive knowledge and capability of thinking have not led European people to positive results.

He was highly influenced during the voyage by the immoral and ego-centric manners of the European sailors, and it was not the ideal Europe Forster imagined, therefore he suggested that the inhabitants and the European on the islands should not have a relationship with one another Forster, , , because the life of the natives did not consist of past or future but just present with limited concepts and objects. As such an isolated life would be unpleasant, boring and unbearable for European people, who have been familiar with so many materials and notions, would destroy that peaceful environment due to their progress in terms of education and social structure.

Finally, comparing and contrasting the narration of Cook about the second voyage with the reflections of Forster related to the same voyage, it is clearly seen that while Cook cannot leave his British background behind, Forster achieves a more objective and philosophical portrayal of cultural multiplicity.

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Cook, commenting on the social life and cultural norms of the natives with prejudice, comes to the fore as a representative of British colonizer, whose ultimate goal is to dominate the language, religion, ideology, and the traditions of the colonized. The system we are subscribed to is Ultra Planner. This allows us to combine weather data with our voyage preparation. In more detail, we receive weather data updates every 6 hours and this includes all wind, wind waves and swell information, as well as taking in account Traffic Separation Schemes and ocean and tidal currents.

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I recall an occasion where we were supposed to sail from Antwerp, Belgium to Santander, Spain and the weather predictions were bad. High westerly swell and wind waves, making the area of Ushant, English Channel to Biscay, a very nasty area to be at the wrong time. A more recent event occurred just recently as we were to sail from Dublin to Santander. A compact but deep low-pressure system for this time of year was setting from the Atlantic straight into the Bay of Biscay. From Dublin up to Lands End there was no real threat for us, but more so in the Biscay.